Spain’s Socialist leader could become PM despite election defeat

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez could now form a coalition (AP)

Spain’s acting centre-left Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez lost July’s national election – but now has a shot at returning to power after the leader of the country’s conservatives failed for a second time to get parliamentary support for a new government.

In a vote in the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, the Spanish parliament’s lower chamber, Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo collected 172 votes in his favour to 177 against him, with one vote declared null and void.